Ross officials are thinking about protecting the police department with a product originally designed to minimize damage from bombings and shootings in Israel's West Bank.
Pat O'Brien, security consultant with ACE Security Laminates, said his company's product -- a laminate film that is affixed to existing glass -- would make the Ross police department windows bullet-resistant and nearly impossible to smash with a baseball bat.
The laminate goes on the inside of the glass, O'Brien said. It has provided protection from the explosion of a 2,500-pound bomb 200 feet away, and it will withstand 1,600 degrees of heat for 30 minutes. The company says the laminate was developed to protect against terrorist attacks.
Installation of the laminate at the police department would cost around $3,800.
Ross Commissioner David Mikec Sr. said he would like to see the laminate placed in the municipal building's safe haven area, where someone can run for protection from attack. The doors of the safe haven lock after a victim enters, and the room has a phone to call 911.
Township Manager Tom Lavorini said the safe haven at the old municipal building did not have bulletproof glass. The new, $6 million building opened in August, and the former township hall was sold to Ross/West View Emergency Medical Services Authority.
Ross would be the first municipality in western Pennsylvania to use the laminate, although O'Brien said some township businesses use it. He declined to identify them.
Because of the safety glass that Ross has installed, the glass with the laminate could withstand only one bullet, O'Brien said.
"Safety glass is made to break and shatter into a thousand pieces," he explained.
"Stopping one shot will give someone the chance to get out of the way for a second shot," he said.
O'Brien said that if the officials wanted full protection from bullets, they should replace the safety glass in 31 windows and three doors and then add the laminate, which would make them able to withstand hundreds of shots.
The only place where total bulletproofing would be an issue is on the security door for the police department," Lavorini said. "That's going to be predicated upon the kind of proposal we get back from the security door people."
O'Brien said the laminate also has insulating properties that block ultraviolet rays.
